What do you call a Frenchman advancing on Baghdad?Sun Feb 23,11:23 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - What do you call a Frenchman advancing on Baghdad? Listeners to a BBC Radio show were denied that knowledge after politically-correct producers edited out the entire joke, The Times reports.

But they did leave in an anti-British joke, spurring the red-faced presenter to pen a letter to listeners apologising for the unpatriotic slant of his show.

"I am sorry for the unmeant, unpatriotic insult to so many lovely, young British women," Ned Sherrin, presenter of Radio Four's Loose Ends wrote in a letter published in The Times.

The apology followed the following gag: "What do you call a pretty girl in London? A tourist."

Sherrin, 72, said the joke had Gallic origins. "They left in the French joke about British women and left out the attempt at Frog-bashing," he explained.

The French have become the butt of numerous jokes in recent days by U.S. media and British tabloids angered at President Jacques Chirac's insistence that further diplomacy precede any war against Iraq.

In Britain, the attack has been spearheaded by the right-leaning Sun, which has dubbed Chirac "Le Worm" and accused him of cowardice.

"I was amazed, annoyed and piqued," said Sherrin. "I'm sure they felt we'd upset the sensitivities of our gallant allies, the French, but why should we be sensitive about this in this day and age?"

And he circumvented his producers by cracking his gags to The Times.

Question: What do you call a Frenchman advancing on Baghdad? Answer: A salesman.

Question: What do you call 20 French politicians face down in the Channel? Answer: A start.

Question: What is the difference between a road accident involving a hedgehog and a Frenchman? Answer: There are skidmarks before the hedgehog.

i just thought i'd share, i know, so what if it has nothign to do with the article....or maybe it does?

"His pocketwatch and copy of Pravda were lying on the floor. The watch showed 6.30. That's when it must have happened to him." - In Russia you don't wind your watch, it runs off enery produced by your heartbeat. Your watch automatically stops at the time or your death.

Nonsense. The Terror had him eliminated for obstructing his plans for total world domination. The poor guy didn't see it coming from one of his allies.[image from thetick.ws too old to be available]Spoon!

A pat on the back to Beria if he did do this. Not like the rest of the guys in the inner circle were saints or anything, but Just_Another_Arsehole is right, Stalin was definitely a bat-shiat crazy nogoodnik and who knows what nutso thing he would've done next.

Why shouldn't we have covert groups from the CIA who assasinate global assholes? Why not nip world wars in the bud? Why not just plug a hole in some little napolianistic meglomaniac - why wait till years, dollars and American lives have been spent?

Quick, proactive diagnosis and aggressive treatment. The only way to combat a disease.

If Stalin was murdered by his closest confidants, it was because they feared for their own lives. Stalin had his entire command staff shot before, and with the prospect of war they probably feared he'd do the same thing, purge the officer corps and politburo of political rivals or potential threats.

Bbcrackmonkey....You hit it on the head. Stalin believed that the best way to make your enemies nervous was to kill your friends. You can bet cash money that someone from the inner cicle was in on the plot (if there was one).

Quick1 -- Judging from posts on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic, not really -- it's a non-innovative, cheating, resource-intensive RTS with lousy unit AI and no speed controls. Given Westwood's history of not innovating, this is not terribly surprising.